Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Paul Sheehan

@paulisheehan.bsky.social

140 followers 490 following 17 posts

New dad, Londoner, rail sector consultant, foodie, outdoors fan, runner

Videos

Art 30%

Philosophy 21%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

James Plunkett @jamestplunkett.bsky.social · 25d

I’ve written a long read on the NHS, the 10 year plan, and how we can unstick the system

What does a digital-era healthcare system really mean?

(Warning: It’s one for a cup of tea!). (1/n)

medium.com/@jamestplunk...

What does digital-era healthcare really mean?

A long read on the NHS, the 10 Year Plan, and what it would take to unstick the system

medium.com

1 7 10

Reposted by Steve Peers, Beatriz Gallardo Paúls, James Connelly , and 3 more Steve Peers, Beatriz Gallardo Paúls, James Connelly, Paul Sheehan, Jon Dean, Lukas Parker

Red Hot World @redhotworld.bsky.social · 29d

When speaking to Tommy Robinson at the far right demonstration in London today, Elon Musk wore a t-shirt saying "What would Orwell think?"

So let's dive in - what would George Orwell think about Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk? 🧵

86 620 1.3K

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Steven French , and 1 more Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Steven French, Paul Sheehan

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · Sep 11

I need you to understand what this country feels like right now for those of us who look different. I'm sitting here, trying to plan for Saturday, make sure I don't even need to go to the corner shop for milk, like it's Christmas Day or lockdown. Why? Because I live near where Yaxley-Lennon will 1/

170 860 2.2K

Reposted by S. J. Holmes, Paul Sheehan

jientho.bsky.social @jientho.bsky.social · Sep 11

THIS 👆🏾!

2 74 650

Reposted by Will Jennings, John Appleby, Paul Sheehan

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Sep 7

Not a word has come from this government, for a month, about

Racist attacks in Britain: graffiti & intimidation

The sewer of racism online

These racist attacks on government ministers

The world's richest man promoting fascists who want to eradicate minorities from the UK

18 240 740

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

Tom Schaller @schaller67.bsky.social · Aug 30

One more tout today (for the west coasters) of this provocative new piece I wrote for Public Notice:

open.substack.com/pub/aaronrup...

Making Slavery Great Again

It's less outlandish than it sounds.

open.substack.com

4 63 300

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Daniela Gabor, Steven Heydemann , and 12 more Cas Mudde, Daniela Gabor, Steven Heydemann, Gavin L. Foster, Andrew Scott, Leigh Sparks, Julian Petley, Lesley A. Hall, Julie Cupples, Jonathan Birch, Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Elizabeth Eva Leach, Paul Sheehan, Christina Pagel, Mary James

Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · Aug 23

Just for perspective, a few weeks ago roughly 100,000 turned up for the London Trans+ Pride march. By contrast fewer than 3,000 ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, have turned up to anti-asylum "protests". Yet we are meant to take the latter as "the voice of the people" and the former as "the minority".

46 1.8K 4.3K

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

Matthew Garrett @mjg59.eicar-test-file.zip · Aug 3

If you're going to send me something written by an LLM then save us all time and resources and just send me your prompt instead. I'll value a text that says "Heartfelt condolence message with reference to a list of events" more, because this way I at least actually know what you were thinking

7 180 780

Reposted by Claude García, Paul Sheehan

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · Jun 9

🧵 Several people have raised questions about what I meant by "deservedly so" when referring to the decline of institutional trust. It's a fair question, so I want to explain that, because it sits at the heart of my work on how democracies collapse when their epistemic foundations rot.

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · Jun 7

The conditions that have led to what’s happening in the US today exist in democracies around the world.
They are an inevitable outcome of our collective failure to adapt to fundamental changes in the information ecosystem on which our democracies were originally built.

33 310 830

Reposted by Edmund Heery, Julian Dobson, Paul Sheehan

Torsten Bell @torstenbell.bsky.social · Nov 25

Here’s a short story about who wins and loses from the status quo of our inheritance tax rules - and about, what you might politely call ‘sub-optimal’ journalism🧵

88 1.4K 2.4K

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

Niall Ó Conghaile @nialloconghaile.bsky.social · Jul 17

These astute points from @seanconnorswrites.bsky.social neatly demonstrate why Europe is not going to relent on commitment to the euro for applicant states

And it comes down ti that much abused phrase "single market"

A 🧵

(Apologies @brainburnnow.bsky.social + @andrewbrook.bsky.social forimages)

12 30 55

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Peter Holmes, Stephen Evans , and 3 more Jonathan Portes, Peter Holmes, Stephen Evans, Jill Rutter, Paul Sheehan, Gráinne McKeever

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · Jul 15

In an effort that will no doubt torch my follower base, I have laid out some basic numbers around our fiscal situation. Obvious, but still a little sobering for me.

freethinkecon.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/t...

There really is no getting out of this fiscal corner

It is something of a cliche to argue that Britain is running out of money, living beyond its means, wandering through a fiscal fool’s paradise – but no less true for that. The trend of …

freethinkecon.wordpress.com

70 110 400

Reposted by Joseph Schafer, Michelle Everson, Paul Sheehan , and 1 more Joseph Schafer, Michelle Everson, Paul Sheehan, Brandon Whitcher

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Jul 1

I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that.

The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one.

This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

I work as an elder and hospice caregiver, which I am oddly passionate about. I can love on them shamelessly and no one complains about my codependence. It's a win-win situation.

Many of my caregiving colleagues complain about the repetitive questions and, sometimes reactions, of the elderly, especially when those patients happen to read the newspaper, especially with the current downward spiral of our country — as if these people haven't lived through enough horror...

I love my dementia peeps, but sometimes wonder if there's a Guinness Book World Record for how many times an hour a dementia patient can repeat the same question — it's got to be in the hundreds. At least with small children, they ask different questions. Dementia patients will get stuck on one short question and ask it until you can interrupt their train(carousel) of thought and successfully redirect their attention. That carousel is pretty manic sometimes.

A couple days ago, I picked up my mail from the post office and drove over to the nursing home to take (let's call her "Miss Daisy") Miss Daisy out for a drive. Before we took off on our road trip, to the end of The Road and back, in our landlocked little town (Juneau, Alaska), I set my copy of The Onion down in front of her.

Over our two-hour excursion, tiny Miss Daisy read that front page at least a dozen times and each time she would snicker, giggle, and guffaw, then put it down on the dash board and, a minute later, discover it anew. I think it was the best afternoon of my life. We don't often hear them laugh and when they do, it's the sweetest thing you've ever heard.

...

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the really important work all of you do. You make the world a better place.

640 6.8K 37K

Reposted by Jesse H. Kroll, Nicolas Véron, Melissa R. Michelson , and 2 more Jesse H. Kroll, Nicolas Véron, Melissa R. Michelson, William A. Allen, Paul Sheehan

Brian Rosenworcel @brianrosenworcel.bsky.social · Jun 22

brilliant

43 1.7K 5.3K

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · Jun 15

Police departments have exponentially more control over how officers are recruited, trained, and overseen than a protest does over its participants, but are allowed by a sympathetic press to use the "bad apples" defense to separate deeds from goals and institutions in a way protestors often aren't.

16 220 700

Reposted by Shelly Lundberg, Paul Sheehan

Toomas Hendrik Ilves @ilvestoomas.bsky.social · Jun 11

🧵
My small country, Estonia, population 1.3 million sent 2003-2014 over 2500 soldiers. 9 were killed in the line of duty. 109 wounded, half of them so seriously they could no longer lead a normal life.

In Iraq 2003-2009 we had more than 440 soldiers. 2 were killed. 18 seriously wounded.

1/n

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Jun 11

HEGSETH: We wore a patch on our shoulder that said ISAF -- International Security Assistance Force. And you know what the joke was? That is stood for 'I saw Americans fighting.'

COONS: Let's just make clear for the record that our military partners in Afghanistan included many who served and died

130 750 3.1K

Paul Sheehan @paulisheehan.bsky.social · Jun 9

📌

Paul Sheehan @paulisheehan.bsky.social · Mar 29

Janet Sheehan. My first Mother’s Day without her. Thank you x

1 3

Paul Sheehan @paulisheehan.bsky.social · Mar 27

Yes it was complacency. The public sector came to be seen in the same light as the charity sector. Voluntary. Where only those that could afford not to maximise their wage would apply. And you know who that attracts.

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · Mar 24

Some thoughts about the US deportations court order case, where today saw (1) a judgment from the federal district court and (2) a hearing at the federal court of appeal.

Judgment:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Hearing (audio on YouTube):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DoT...

1.

1 44 100

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

Will Jennings 🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · Mar 8

Anyone who somehow still believes Elon Musk is a genius should read this - it is a brutal indictment of his ignorance and ideology. defector.com/neither-elon...

Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars | Defector

Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic ac...

defector.com

18 67 220

Reposted by Peter Adriaens, Croatia, Adam Leaver , and 3 more Peter Adriaens, Croatia, Adam Leaver, Allison Eden, Paul Sheehan, Fabienne Peter

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · Feb 28

What we’re witnessing in America is what happens when disordered discourse captures a political party, then the state itself. The Republican Party was the first to fall - abandoning truth for conspiracy, ideology for grievance, and policy for performative outrage.

170 2.8K 10K

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · Feb 24

Putin planned to take Kyiv in three days, but he couldn't take Kyiv in three years.
The only way Putin wins now—the only way he finally succeeds in destroying Ukraine’s sovereignty—is by persuading Ukraine’s allies to abandon Ukraine.
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Putin’s Three Years of Humiliation

The Russian president can’t win his war against Ukraine unless he persuades its allies to betray it.

www.theatlantic.com

93 1.4K 4.2K

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

Andrew Levi @andrewprlevi.bsky.social · Feb 21

Could we all, please, stop saying this is caused by social media?

It isn’t. And suggesting it is dangerously distracts us from what matters most.

Pol Pot didn’t have YouTube or Instagram.

Hitler didn’t have Facebook or Twitter.

Stalin didn’t have TikTok.

A 🧵 /1.

4 26 44

Reposted by Sarah Joseph, Liz Kelly, Paul Sheehan

Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · Feb 13

DISEASES ERADICATED OR DECIMATED BY SCIENCE:
1. Chickenpox
2. Diphtheria
3. Measles
4. Pertussis
5. Pneumococcal Infection
6. Polio
7. Tetanus
8. Typhoid
9. Yellow Fever
10. Smallpox

DISEASES ERADICATED OR DECIMATED BY RFK JR. OR PRAYER:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1.2K 17K 50K

Paul Sheehan @paulisheehan.bsky.social · Jan 30

📌

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

Lars Münter @larsmuenter.bsky.social · Jan 28

Chaos and confusion. Somebody read @naomiaklein.bsky.social The Shock Doctrine as a manual, it seems. Time for people to read it again for countermeasures also.

Timothy McBride @mcbridetd.bsky.social · Jan 28

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion

Trillions of dollars could be on hold, according to an Office of Management and Budget memo
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion

The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

www.washingtonpost.com

2 10 39

Paul Sheehan @paulisheehan.bsky.social · Jan 28

📌

Reposted by Paul Sheehan

🦇🧛‍♂️Bram Stoker’s GuitarMoogula🧛‍♂️🦇 @guitarmoog.bsky.social · Jan 27

We gave you *all* the money and the 5% of global electricity you said you needed, and some lad’s gone and knocked up something better in his shed for the price of a Bugatti while you and your pals were busy fellating fascists at Mar-a-lago.

7 48 170

Paul Sheehan @paulisheehan.bsky.social · Jan 20

Says someone whose avatar is doing a Nazi salute 😂